day,--surely no British Under-Secretary will exercise an unwise discretion, and forbid him that small pleasure!--"which was an undeniable proof of all the rest, and could not but convince his Prussian Majesty of the truth of them."--Well? "He took the Letter from me, cast his eye upon it; and seeing it to be Grumkow's hand, said to me with all the anger imaginable [fancy the thunder-burst!], _'Messieurs, j'ai eu assez de ces choses la;'_ threw the Letter upon the ground, and immediately turning his back went out of the room, and shut the door upon us,"--probably with a slam! And that is the naked truth concerning this celebrated Intercepted Letter. Majesty answered explosively,--his poor heart being in a burdened and grieved condition, not unlike growing a haunted one,--"I have had enough of that stuff before!" pitched the new specimen away, and stormily whirled out with a slam of the door. That he stamped with his foot, is guessable. That he "lifted his foot as if to kick the Honorable English Excellency," [Wilhelmina, i. 228.] which the English Excellency never could have stood, but must have died on the spot,--of this, though several Books have copied it from Wilhelmina, there is no vestige of evidence: and the case is bad enough without this. "Your Lordship will easily imagine that Captain Guy Dickens and I were not a little astonished at this most extraordinary behavior. I took up the Letter he had thrown upon the floor [IPSISSIMUM CORPUS of it lost to mankind, last seen going into Hotham's pocket in this manner]; and returning home, immediately wrote one to his Prussian Majesty, of which a copy is here enclosed."--Let us read that essential Piece: sound substance, in very stiff indifferent French of Stratford,--which may as well be made English at once:-- "TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF PRUSSIA. "SIRE,--It is with the liveliest grief that I find myself under the necessity,--after what has passed today at the audience I had of your Majesty, where I neither did nor said anything in regard to that Letter of Monsieur Grumkow's or to putting it into your Majesty's hands, that was not by my Master's order,--it is, I say, Sire, with the liveliest grief that I am obliged to inform your Majesty of the necessity there lies on me to despatch a Courier to London to apprise the King my Master of an incident so surprising as the one that has just happened. For which reason I beg (SUPPLIE) your Majesty will be pleased to cause the necessary Orders for Post-horses to be furnished me, not only for the said Courier, but also for myself,--since, after what has just happened, it is not proper for me to prolong my stay here (_faire un plus long sejour ici_). "I have the honor to be, your Majesty's, &c. &c. &c. "CHARLES HOTHAM."